Release Tracking

Note: This feature is currently in Beta. Select the yellow Feedback button and let us know how we could improve your experience.

Program managers, product owners, engineering leads, and other organizers can track the status of teams and features in a common release from the Release Tracking page.

Features (or your custom-named, lowest-level portfolio items) that have been planned into a release display on the left side of the page, which can be compared against a matrix of teams and iterations on the right.

View Overall Release Status

You can view the overall release status. When you view the release status, you have can also customize your view by dependencies, matrix or chart.

Follow these steps:

Select Portfolio, Release Tracking.

The release with the earliest start date is displayed by default. Select the release you want to track from the drop-down at the top of the page:

Use the Grid Unit drop-down to track the status of work by story points or count of associated stories. The values in feature blocks and status indicators will update to reflect your choice.

Use the icons in the upper-right corner of the page to switch between matrix, chart, and dependency views.

View Dependencies by Release

Select the dependencies icon to view all the features in the selected release that have dependencies on other features. All items that have a dependency relationship that have the release assigned will show in the table, even if the other item involved in the dependency relationship is not assigned to the selected release.

Track Features and Work

The left side of the page lists all features and work that has been planned in the selected release.

Three types of features are displayed as rows in the list:

Direct Features are portfolio items that have been associated with the selected release and have corresponding work in iterations. These features display a numerical rank number.

Derived Features display with a rank value of D. These portfolio items are associated with a release other than the one selected in the drop-down at the top of the page, but may have stories or defects associated with the release selected in the drop-down. Features assigned to the release, but not to the scoped project team or teams also display as derived features.

Unparented rows represent the group of user stories or defects that are associated with the selected release or related iterations, yet do not have a portfolio item set as a parent.

Select any highlighted ID link to visit a feature's detail page.

Rank and Sort

The list is sorted in rank order ascending by default. Rank is determined by the position of any work item in the release, so you may see some derived features, identified with a rank of D, listed among numerically ranked features. This is due to the ranking system's process, which first ranks all items (direct and derived) in the list, and then re-numbers direct features to show a sequential rank order.

Select the column name to sort the rank and other columns.

Note: We would love your feedback! If you would like to see ranking between direct and derived features work differently, or have other ideas for improving Release Tracking, please submit your comments through the Feedback button, found in the upper-right corner of the page.

Search

Type part of the name or ID into the search field at the top of the list to find a specific feature. Results display as you type.

Track Individual Features

Select a row in the list to track the progress of a feature:

Associated work is highlighted in the iterations grid to the right.

Teams who have not worked on the feature display as collapsed rows in the grid.

Select the feature row again to deselect the feature and return the grid to its original state.

Identify Issues

The status indicator provides a quick color-coded glance at the progress against each feature in the release. The color displayed in the indicator uses the same coloring algorithm found on the Portfolio Items page.

Direct features display a percentage complete value in the status indicator, as the entire feature is planned into the release. Derived features display a count of completed versus planned work items, as only some of the work from the feature is planned into the current release and project scope.

Select the status indicator to view additional details in a popup.

Details include:

Planned start and completion dates

Story points accepted

Story count accepted

Defect count accepted

Teams involved

Issues

The Issues column displays the icon if there are problems with the feature, user story, or defect. Select the icon or status indicator to view more details.

Issues are reported for the following scenarios within the feature:

Blocked user stories or defects.

Release mismatch — one or more user stories have a release assignment that does not match the parent feature.

A user story is dependent on another through a predecessor relationship, but the predecessor is not scheduled into an earlier iteration.

The Issues popup is limited to displaying 20 items in order of oldest to newest order. If there are more than 20 issues, any beyond the limit are not displayed until the older issues are resolved.

Note: The issues icon only displays next to direct features that have a schedule state other than Accepted.

Track Across Iterations

The right side of the page is an iterations grid that provides a breakdown of work by iterations and teams:

Teams are represented as rows. Select a team name to collapse or expand the row.

Columns display for each iteration that falls within the start and end dates of the release. An Unscheduled column displays any user stories or defects that have been assigned to the release without iteration assignments.

Status indicators display above team work in each iteration column. The numeric values are tied to the Grid Unit drop-down. The status indicator is color-coded, according to the rules used on the Iteration Status page:

Green indicates all work in the iteration has been completed by the team

Light blue indicates work is current and in-progress

Dark blue indicates work was not completed in a past iteration

Note: Create matching iterations and releases through the bulk create method to ensure all data correctly displays on the page.

Feature Cells

Cells display in the grid with the feature's ID when a team works on an associated user story or defect. The numbers to the right of each cell indicate the ratio of planned versus accepted work. These numbers change depending on your selection in the Grid Unit drop-down. Select a cell to see details about the work in that iteration.

Select any ID link to visit the detail page of a story or defect.

User stories and defects that are in the iteration, but do not roll-up to a portfolio item, can be found in the US and DE cells.

Track Dependencies

If a feature cell has the icon, there is a predecessor relationship present with other work items. Select the icon to display arrows that illustrate the dependency within the release.

Select a feature cell to display more information about the dependencies in a popup. Select any ID link to visit that work item's detail page.

The arrows may display as gray or red:

Dependencies that are on work items planned earlier are gray.

Dependencies that are potentially problematic are red. For example, a predecessor work item planned in the same iteration or later than successor work item.

In the case of multiple dependencies on a work item, if one is red, then all will be red.

Note:

Dependency lines only display for dependencies between user stories in different features.

Dependency lines only display if there is at least one dependency between items in the same release.

Dependency lines between vertically and horizontally adjacent feature cells may be difficult to read.

If a story is dependent on a story outside of the release, a yellow triangle displays on the story's feature.

View the Burnup Chart

Select the chart icon in the upper-right corner of the page to switch to the chart view.

By default, the chart burns up all points or counts from all user stories and defects from all direct features in the Features list. For derived features, only work assigned to the scoped project in the selected release is reflected in the chart.

Select a row to scope the chart to just that feature or group of user stories.

Hover over a point in the chart to access more details in a popup:

Chart Fields

See the table below for details on each chart field:

Label

Meaning

Preliminary Estimate

Sum of the numeric preliminary estimate for all features in the list. This indicates the high-level scope of the release. This scope value changes only when a feature is added or removed from the release.

Planned Points

Sum of plan estimate values of stories and defects in features in the list, plus unparented user stories and defects. This value changes when:

A feature is added to or removed from the release

A user story or defect is added to or removed from a feature in the release

A user story or defect is added to or removed from the release

The plan estimate value of any artifact included in the release is changed

Accepted Points

Sum of plan estimate values of stories and defects whose schedule state is accepted.

Released Points

Sum of plan estimate values of stories and defects whose schedule state is released. This value is zero if the release state is not used. Note that the chart shows accepted points stacked on top of released, but the released point value does not include work that is in an accepted state.